Iraqis Rally as Maliki Appeals for Calm to Avoid Chaos

(Corrects description of provinces in first paragraph of
story originally published on April 26.)

April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqis in Sunni-dominated provinces
north and west of Baghdad joined protests against the Shiite-led
government, after a lethal wave of violence prompted Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki to appeal for dialogue.

“Brothers, dialogue and understanding can achieve what
terror, violence and killing can’t,” Maliki said in a televised
address late yesterday after three days of clashes between armed
Sunni tribesmen and security forces in the north that police say
left at least 100 people dead.

Demonstrators were gathering today in Ramadi, the capital
of Anbar province, and Samarra town in Salahuddin. In south-western Baghdad, a bomb exploded as Sunni worshippers were
leaving a mosque, killing nine people.

Tensions have been on the rise since Sunnis began anti-government protests in December and worsened on April 23 when
troops backed by helicopters stormed a plaza in Hawija, killing
at least 20 protesters. Armed tribesmen who lost family members
then attacked a number of army checkpoints in the governorate.

Iraq has been “affected by a region seething with
sectarianism and we are starting to see those problems come to
us,” Maliki said. “A rift is like fire that engulfs
everything.’

Foreign rights groups have criticized Maliki’s handling of
the protests.

‘‘The Iraqi authorities shouldn’t respond to the killings
in Hawija by once again failing to hold security forces
responsible for unlawful killings,” said Sarah Leah Whitson,
Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Turning a blind
eye to previous abuses has helped create the violent environment
that today threatens to escalate across Iraq.”

‘Noble Figures’

Sheikh Abdul al-Malek al-Saadi, a senior Sunni cleric,
called on demonstrators to show restraint and to fight only if
attacked in a statement on April 24. He called for the prime
minister to be replaced “with other Iraqi, patriotic, noble
figures.”

Maliki spoke after violence in the north also struck
Sulaiman Bek. The northern town was largely quiet today after
the army entered following negotiations with tribal leaders.

Violence has escalated since the U.S. withdrew its last
combat troops from Iraq at the end of 2011, with 4,568 civilians
killed in 2012 compared with 4,144 in the previous year,
according to the Iraq Body Count website.